SURF + SOUND BRINGS A NEW BEAT TO MANLY

Image: Life Without Andy.

Manly is getting a new soundtrack this spring, with Surf + Sound set to turn the Northern Beaches into a three-week celebration of live music, surf and culture.

Running from 16 October to 1 November 2026, the inaugural festival will bring major Australian acts to Manly Wharf, with Skegss, The Whitlams, Skunkhour, The Beautiful Girls, GANGgajang, Winston Surfshirt and Mudhoney among the first names announced. The full music program is still under wraps, but the early bill points to a festival with one foot in Australian music history and the other firmly in the present.

For The Whitlams’ Tim Freedman, the event represents a homecoming of sorts. His first local show was at Dee Why’s Time and Tide Hotel in 1981. Forty-five years later, he’ll return to the Northern Beaches to play Surf + Sound at Felons. “It’s been a long time between my first ever show at the Time and Tide Hotel in Dee Why in 1981 and this one,” says Freedman. “Just seven kilometres, and 45 years later. It’ll be great to be playing back in the hood, at Felons for Surf + Sound.” GANGgajang’s Graham ‘Buzz’ Bidstrup also knows the territory well, having surfed and played across the Beaches since arriving in Sydney in the 1970s.

But music is only part of the pitch. Manly Wharf will become the festival’s cultural hub, with a free public art trail curated by Sydney-raised artist Jeremyville, alongside food, markets and special dining experiences.

The festival’s final weekend shifts the focus to the ocean, with the Surf + Sound Boardrider Battle taking over Manly Beach on 31 October and 1 November. Led by world champion Joel Parkinson, the competition will feature boardrider clubs from around Australia, while a Legends Heat will bring surfing icons including Layne Beachley, Mark Occhilupo and Parkinson back to the beach.

The idea was born from five friends - James ‘Jamo’ Willis, Adam Flaskas, Joel Parkinson, Paul Henry and Lachie Given - with Willis returning to Australia after more than two decades overseas. Following the loss of his Malibu home in the devastating fires, a simple idea for a surf event evolved into something considerably bigger.

Surf + Sound is ultimately an attempt to bottle what makes Manly distinctive: good waves, loud guitars, art, food and a community that has never been short of character.